Historic%20Yorkshire
Historic%20Yorkshire
Historic%20Yorkshire
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Chapter IV.<br />
LEEDS UNDER THE NORMANS.<br />
HE Normans wouldfind Leeds a meanvillage<br />
composed of but about three lanes or streets,<br />
possibly Briggate, Kirkgate, and Swinegate,<br />
inhabited by some threehundred villains,who<br />
were governed by seven thanes or esquires,<br />
who held the seven manors into which "Leedes"<br />
was divided. The town was granted to Ilbert<br />
de Laci as onemanor at the Conquest, and by that great<br />
warriorit was bestowed,probablyat some period previous<br />
to 1089, upon Ralph Paganell,for we find him in that<br />
year presenting the Church of Leeds and the Chapel of<br />
Holbeck to the Priory of York. Probably the Castle was<br />
built by the Paganellfamily to maintain their authority.<br />
That after the ConquestLeeds began to assume a more<br />
important characteris evident. There is in existence a<br />
charter granted to the burgesses of Leeds by Maurice<br />
Paganell, the lord of the manor, in the reign of King<br />
John. This charter, written in the rudest and most<br />
undecipherableLatin, has been made intelligible by the<br />
learningand labourofDr. Whitaker; and a few references<br />
to it will afford a striking picture of the state of Leeds in<br />
that good old time, and an echo offering a startling<br />
contrast to the sounds whichrise to-day from " the busy<br />
Mart; the temperate Council Board * * * the<br />
patriotic voice of ancient Leeds."